despres



March 22, 1955 U. H. DEsPRx-:s

SUPPORT FLAT FOR RAYON COPS Filed April 21, 1952 INVENTOR URBAN H. DESPRES HIS ATTORNEYS Mmh 22, 1955 H, DESPRES 2,704,600

SUPPORT FLAT FOR RAYON COPS Filed April 2l, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l l' W '6J I W INVE N TOR URBAN H. DESPRES HIS ATTORNEYS United States Patent O SUPPORT FLAT FOR RAYON COPS Urban H. Despres, Clinton, Maine, assignor to Keyes Fibre Company, Portland, Maine, a corporation of Maine Application April 21, 1952, Serial No. 283,401

3 Claims. (Cl. 206-65) This invention relates to the packing of groups of industrial products that require careful support and protection during shipment.

More particularly the invention relates to a package and support-protector at for textile products such as rayon yarn and the like, the specific example of the invention being directed to a support and protector at for a plurality of cones or spools having yarn wound thereon, such as the textile cops used in commerce.

For many applications in the textile industry rayon yarn is spun in continuous lengths and wound on spools. These spools of the yarn are then individually wrapped in protective paper sheets and packed in corrugated shipping cases which contain about three or four dozen of such spools per case. v

Since the cops have a relatively high value per unit weight, it will be readily appreciated that a single case of such spools represents a large financial investment which renders it commercially imperative that the yarn be carefully protected against any harmful or damaging factors during transit to the user.

The protection of these yarns is complicated b y the fact that the elasticity of rayon, particularly viscose rayon, is not high. If stretched and then released from the strain, it does not return quite to its original length. This phenomenon is described as creep and results in shiners and streaky dyeing when utilizing such stretched yarn in the manufacture of fabrics. A further .complication arises from the fact that the abrasion resistance of rayon yarn is also relatively low.

lf the individual cones or spools are loosely packed in vertically spaced layers in the shipping c ase without any separating or supporting partitions, the rigors of modern transportation and article handling systems will inevitably cause the separate spools of yarn to jump about and be knocked together resulting in an abrading of the outer layer of yarn on the different cones. Further, the repeated jarring of the different cones of yarn u pon adjacent cones results in an impact hammer action"7 on the corner edges of the wound yarn which sometimes causes the corner turns to slip off of the body of the yarn and become stretched and tangled.

Prior to the instant invention it had been the practice to provide a separating grill in each layer of yarn with individual compartments for each cone of yarn to avoid this difficulty, but this has not proved very satisfactory since the individual cones still had freedom to jump and knock about within the grill compartments and produce much the same undesired result of loosened corner edges and tangled and stretched yarn, although to a lesser extent.

It is an object of this invention to provide a simple and inexpensive support-protector for supporting a plurality of such rayon yarn cones in fixed spaced relationship within a shipping case without the use of any secondary supporting or protective grill.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a support-protector for rayon yarn which has a high inherent stiffness and rigidity which will permit tipping of the shipping case on its various sides and still retain the yarn in its fixed, packed, spaced relationship.

Reference will now be made to the drawings to specifically illustrate the chosen example of the invention and in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of my protector at illustrating a construction for holding twelve spools of rayon;

Fig. 2 is a side edge view of the protector flat of Fig. l;

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3 is an end edge view thereof;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a packing case employing my novel protector flat, the view being taken along the broken line 4-4 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 4 of a shipping case of rayon spools employing a modified form of protector flat. As is illustrated in Fig. l the support-protector of this invention consists of a generally at sheet of molded pulp material. This sheet is pre-formed to have a plurality o f longitudinal and transverse pairs of intersecting raised rib structures 2. The individual rib structures of these pairs are spaced apart by valley sections 4 that can be in the plane of the sheet. The rib structures are arranged in a grillwork pattern to form separate substantially square areas or pockets 5 spaced apart from each other. As shown in the figure, a preferred embodiment of this invention incorporates twelve such areas on a single sheet arranged in three parallel longitudinal rows of four each.

At each corner of the two interior pockets are formed raised junction posts 3 having side sections integrally connected with each of the adjacent ribs 2 that intersect at that point. It will be noted that except for the intersection posts the longitudinal and transverse ribs extend completely across the sheet from edge to edge. Although the corners of the sheet are shown as rounded, they can also be made square if desired.

Located centrally of each pocket 5 are raised articlesupporting surfaces 6 having a configuration resembling that of a Maltese cross. In the center of this configuration there is an upwardly projecting circular rib 7 defining a central depressed pit. The spaces between the separate arms of each Maltese cross consists of generally trapezoidal areas that can be level with the surface of the sheet and bounded on three sides by the adjacent arms in the Maltese cross pattern. The fourth or outer sides of these trapezoidal areas are closed by arcuate rib structures 8 which are formed integrally with the raised parallel rib structures 2 and in some places with additional raised rib structures 10 and 11 that also extend to the very edges of the sheet. The arrangement is such that the entire surface of the sheet consists of a continuous and interrelated network of ribs of various shapes which provide an exceedingly effective rigidifying strength even with a relatively small thickness of formed or supporting material.

The provision of the junction posts 3 at the intersection of the adjacent square areas 5 provides additional stiffness to the rectangular sheet and reduces the possibility of creasing the sheet and thereby weakening it by bending it along the valley portions 4 in either a transverse or longitudinal direction.

As will be noted from an inspection of Fig. l, the Maltese crosses are arranged in three longitudinal rows of four each and alternate crosses in each longitudinal row have the angular direction of their arms varied although this variation is not essential.

Referring now to Fig. 4 which indicates the use of the packing flat in packing a shipping case of rayon wound spools, it will be noted that one flat is placed on the bottom surface of the packing case 1S and has its edge surfaces in engagement with the side of the case, the rayon spools 16 being mounted in the pockets provided therefor. As indicated in the figure the supporting spool portion for the cone of yarn has its bottom end 17 mounted inside of the central portion of the Maltese cross plateau and just outside of the circular rib 7. The bottom end surface of the yarn on the cone rests upon the raised arms 6 of the Maltese cross. A second protector flat is placed over this bottom layer of rayon yarn and positioned so that the depressed pit in the center of each Maltese cross plateau is inserted in the center of the tubular opening of the top surface 18 of the supporting spool, the top surfaces of the yarn on the cones bearing against the underside of the trapezoidal valley sections intermediate the arms of the Maltese cross plateau. A second layer of spools of rayon yarn may then be placed directly upon this second flat in an identical manner to the first layer and so on as desired.

With this form of packing fiat, the spools and rayon yarn are positively held in fixed, spaced relationship from each other by virtue of the peg-type engagement with the tubular ends of the cones. The construction is such that each cone is isolated from adjacent cones both horizontally and vertically. The particular arrangement of ribs, particularly the manner in which the ribs extend to the very edges of the sheet, presents a stiff supporting structure which will withstand considerable weight or pressure on its edge surfaces without crinkling or crumpling. The combination of the pin-type supports and the ribs that run to the very edge, keeps the individual spools of yarn securely in place in the individual compartments provided by the opposed pockets on adjacent sheets. As a result, the yarn is well protected from damage even if the packing case is stood or knocked down on its side. The transverse strength of the edge ribbing keeps the circular ribbing at the center' of each pocket from shifting due to collapsing of the sheets. At the same time, the pin-type connections of the circular ribbing hold the spools carefully suspended away from each other.

An alternative construction of the packing flat is illustrated in Fig. 5 in which the central pit is omitted from the center section of the Maltese cross leaving a unitary boss 21 of a height that may be equal to the height of the plateau 25. The rest of the construction of the at can be identical to that of Fig. 1 and need not be further described. This provides a somewhat simpler construction which functions in substantially the same manner as that previously described. As illustrated in the ligure, the lower portion of the rayon supporting spools 30 are mounted in the circular depressions 20, bounding bosses 21, while the upper portions of the supporting spools are mounted within the underside of the raised boss boundaries 22.

It is a feature of the invention to provide an article support and protector from a single sheet of molded pulp material having suflicient strength to support a plurality of articles suspended between two such sheets standing on edge without crinkling or crumpling.

In the specific embodiments illustrated this feature has been produced by forming plural pairs of parallel rib structures extending across the face of the sheet to its edge surfaces. Alternatively, in lieu of such arrangement, single spaced ribs could be used or the ribs could be grouped in close relationship of threes or fours. With this type of alternative rib structure, the central junction posts 3 could be eliminated.

According to a further modiiication of the present invention, the article-cushioning sections 6 can be of rectangular or circular configuration and disposed in any convenient arrangement with respect to each pocket. In some instances, for example where the supported articles are of light weight, some or all the extra supporting and stiiening rib structures 9, 10 and 11 can be eliminated Without seriously reducing the strength or edge stiffness of the sheet.

The support-protector is preferably formed by suction molding from a slurry of aqueous pulp mixture, although other methods such as pressing or stamping wet sheet stock are applicable. The former is preferred, however, because of its ability to retain the inherent resilient characteristics of the cellulosic iibers in the finished product and provide a cushioning ability in the nished product without special treatment thereof. The provision of a multiplicity of undulations in the flat further enhances this cushioning ability, particularly in the plateau portions 6 of the Maltese cross areas where the surrounding indentations permit the flat plateau areas to ex under the weight of the wound spools without deforming the general outline of the sheet.

Bv the instant invention, it is possible to pack any desired number of industrial products having a central core structure in rectangular type boxes or cases without the medium of any supporting or protecting structure other than a plurality of identical tiats. This not only simplies the handling and packing of such products but also permits the elimination of specially constructed reinforced packing cases due to the inherent stiffness of the flats which act as reinforcing ribs in the interior of the casing structure. Further, the storage of large numbers of packing ats made according to the instant invention is readily accommodated in a relatively small space and no prepacking operation, such as that required to unfold the prior art type grill-work separator from its packed condition, is

As many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope hereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments hereof, except as deiined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A packing tiat for supporting and protecting a plurality of articles in-a packing case, said flat being in the form of a generally rectangular sheet, a plurality of pairs of ribs formed on said sheet, the ribs of each of said pairs of ribs being closely spaced from each other, some of said pairs of ribs extending perpendicularly to and intersecting others of said pairs of ribs across the surface of said sheet to the edges thereof to form separate pockets in said sheet, an article retaining configuration formed in each pocket and including a central circular boss, an annular rib concentric with said central circular boss, a plurality of annularly spaced rib extensions extending radially from said annular rib, and a relatively narrow, arcuate rib connecting the radially outer extremities of each adjacent pair of rib extensions.

2. The packing at of claim l wherein junction posts are formed in said sheet at the intersections of the perpendicularly arranged pairs of ribs.

3. In a package wherein a plurality of textile cops, each having a central supporting core, is positioned in protected spaced relationship within a packing case, the combination of a first rectangular and generally fiat support sheet of molded pulp material, a plurality of pairs of ribs formed on said sheet, the ribs of each of said pairs of ribs being closely spaced from each other, some of said pairs of ribs extending perpendicularly to and intersecting others of said pairs of ribs across the surface of said sheet to the edges thereof to form separate pockets in said sheet, an article-retaining configuration formed in each pocket and including a central, circular boss, an annular rib concentric with said central circular boss, a plurality of annularly spaced rib extensions extending radially from said annular rib. and a relatively narrow, arcuate rib connecting the radially outer extremities of each adjacent pair of rib extensions, a plurality of copcarryng cones positioned on said sheet within the respective pockets, the Wide ends of each of said cones being seated in the channel formed between each of said bosses and its corresponding annular rib. a second support sheet, identical with said first sheet, said second sheet positioned over the top of said cops with each of the recesses, formed by the bosses on said second sheet, encompassing the upper end of one of said cones to securely hold said cone in place.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,268,347 Harr June 4, 1918 1,687,224 Oxhandler Oct. 9, 1928 2,063,319 Lee Dec. 18, 1936 2,215,252 Randall et al. Sept. 17, 1940 2,311,473 Schwartzberg Feb. 16, 1943 2,314,198 De Reamer Mar. 16, 1943 2,414,724 De Reamer Ian. 21, 1947 2,505,886 De Reamer May 2, 1950 2,578,444 Nicolle Dec. 11, 1951 

